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Accolades

“This is good news for Massachusetts wine enthusiasts, who will now be able to purchase wines they currently don’t have access to,” said Robert Dwyer of Wellesley, who blogs about wine. “This is also good news for Massachusetts in general since it will mean new revenues.”

"Robert P. Dwyer of Wellesley, who blogs about wine at thewww.wellesleywinepress.com, calls the state’s liquor laws bizarre and favors a wider availability of wine. For consumers, it would be more convenient to be able to buy wine at a supermarket while shopping for food, he said."

“You have this strange exclusion of wine, which in Europe is considered a grocery item,” said Mr. Dwyer. “Here it’s considered the demon rum.”

"trying to predict the annual Wine of the Year is a popular parlor game among enophiles. This year, blogger Wellesley Wine Press held a contest, with New York wine retailer Grapes the Wine Co. awarding a prize of a Kindle Fire e-reader to the first commenter to correctly guess this year's top wine before it was announced. Unfiltered was impressed with the number of Top 10 wines prognosticated by Wellesley's readers. "Senelwine" guessed Château de St.-Cosme Gigondas 2009, our No. 10 wine, "Mike M" guessed Quinta do Vallado Touriga Nacional Douro 2008, our No. 7 wine, "James Z" guessed Baer Ursa Columbia Valley 2008, our No. 6 wine, and "RichardPF" nailed it, winning the Kindle, and the respect of his wine-loving peers. Looks like Wellesley's readers know their wine."

The Chicago Tribune's Bill Daley mentioned the site in Rosé: A wine for more seasons. I said "For me, they're like pumpkin spice coffee drinks: best enjoyed early in the season". Bill alsogave the site a shout-out for a piece the Capitol Case Clubcontributed about restaurant wine service. I thought it was a great example of how print wine writers can effectively engage wine bloggers.

The Boston Globe's website has been linking to my recent entries as part of their expanded local coverage includingWellesley. I truly appreciate that as it has driven a lot of local traffic to this site.

It was really nice of Thomas Matthews, Executive Editor of Wine Spectator to leave a comment and then check back and answer some questions I had. Awesome guy! Check it out here. And here.

Thanks to The Boston Globe for including The Wellesley Wine Press in their list of local blogs in the Food & Drink section. Check it out here.

The Wellesley Wine Press was just added tohttp://wine.alltop.com. Alltop is an interesting topical take on sorting through the best sites on the Internet- check it out and see which sites are listed for topics you're most interested in.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Shortly before the holidays I received a sample of a few Bytox hangover prevention remedies. The product is a patch you apply before drinking and remove the morning after that, according to the manufacturer, supplies your body with vitamins and nutrients otherwise depleted while drinking thus preventing bothersome side effects commonly associated with the overconsumption of alcohol.

Not wanting to risk a raging hangover myself, and not wanting to share my tales of overconsumption, I reached out to my friend George Kaplan who agreed to test the Bytox patch in a controlled experiment and share his thoughts for our collective consideration. He happens to be an excellent drinker. And as you'll find below, an equally excellent writer.

Bytoxification

I must admit, I was more than a bit skeptical when a friend of mine approached me with the opportunity to test the latest hangover remedy, bytox™. I am usually leery of these remedies, but with a full slate of holiday parties looming on my calendar, I decided I could use any help I could get.

The Setup

Before setting out for the evening, I thoroughly read the bytox™ directions, and chose to ignore the warning to “Stay well hydrated”. Sound advice, yes, but a bit of a cheat, as anyone who stays well hydrated is unlikely to end up with a hangover anyway.

My evening’s consumption began at 7:00 with a solid meal at my favorite haunt, and ended at midnight. Per my custom, I mixed and matched and stuck to no pre-set pattern; the final tally was four Old Fashioneds (Old Overholt), three Gin & Tonics (Beefeater), and two bottles of Lone Star.

The Results

As you all can imagine, I wasn’t exactly at my best the next morning. I did get up around five o’clock to have a glass of water and gobble down 800 mg of ibuprofen, but that’s my usual morning-after-a-debacle procedure, and I wanted to stick to it. You know, this being scientific and all.

The bytox ™ did nothing at all to mitigate the day after lethargy, and I really fell off a cliff after two o’clock or so. But, skeptical though I was heading into this experiment, I must admit that the patch did help to alleviate some of the other, traditional “hangover” symptoms. The horrible metallic taste in my mouth was absent, as was the stabbing pain behind my eyes and the hollow feeling that one sometimes gets the morning after drinking too much whisky. I had only a small headache, and the day-after hangover fogginess was noticeably diminished.

The Recommendation

I would definitely use bytox ™ again. I don’t want to oversell this, of course; I was still banged up the next day, but I was able to function productively, rather than slumping senseless in a chair all day. What I did was excessive. If someone were to use this product because they usually have a little hangover after drinking a bottle of red wine the evening before, I’d hazard a guess that this handy patch would overcome the hangover altogether.

So there you have it. An impartial review of the Bytox Hangover Remedy.

For more information, and to request a sample Bytox patch for free ($1.50 shipping) visit:http://bytox.com

Question of the Day: What do you think of the idea of a hangover prevention patch? What are some of your favorite hangover prevention tips?